Bhubaneswar, Oct. 5: Veterinary doctor-cum-businessman Manas Ranjan Das, who was allegedly kidnapped with his two aides from Giridih in Jharkhand on August 23, returned home to the city today.

Das, who was freed yesterday after 40 days in captivity, however, pleaded ignorance about any ransom having been paid by his family members to release him.

'I am yet to know whether my family members have paid any ransom money to the kidnappers. Though I have asked them several times, they denied paying any ransom. But, it is possible that they are refusing to divulge the information to me at this point, because they don't want me to get tensed,' said Das.

Jharkhand police got to know about the abduction after finding an abandoned car from GT Road near Dumari in Giridih district of Jharkhand. The alleged kidnappers had demanded Rs 5 crore as ransom for the release of Das.

Forty-one-year-old Das, a resident of Chandrasekharpur in Bhubaneswar, has been running a poultry feed-processing unit at Hajipur in Bihar for the past 10 years.

Das said his captors had kept him in a room with an attached toilet and bathroom.

'The room had a cooler and fan and was equipped with a generator. They also provided me non-vegetarian food, including mutton and fish. The people, who handed over the food to me, used to cover their faces,' said Das.

He said the abductors had given him Rs 3,000 before releasing him.

'I was blindfolded during my kidnap and release. I was also asked to shave before my release. They freed me 20km away from Arrah in Bihar from where I took an auto-rickshaw to reach Arrah,' said Das, whose mother and wife had sought chief minister Naveen Patnaik's intervention for his release.

When asked about the motive behind the abduction, Das said he suspected the kidnappers thought that he must be very rich.

'They perhaps thought I had a huge amount of money. But later, they probably got to know I do not have that much money and decided to release me,' said Das.